Saturday, March 14, 2009

The pot of gold at the end of the cultural rainbow...

And anyone who chooses to stand up for diversity, strong civic spirit, and multi-cultural harmony in the community.

When I originally included this mural in Problem Sleuth, I found it on the internet and thought it was particularly striking. I had no idea at the time that it was physically located about 15 minutes from where I lived, in Cambridge MA.

Naturally I had to go celebrate its existence as well as my physical proximity to it by standing in front of it. Intrepid fellow diversity enthusiast Tyler came along too, and here you see him somewhat nonplussed by the mischievous stowaway clinging to his hapless personage.

Prior to discovering the mural was local, I had wondered how to get information on the artist in order to give credit. Now that is possible. Let us all bask in the majesty of David Fitcher's painterly vision.

There is an amazing amount of these "cultural urban murals" in the Boston area. Fichter's work is apparently everywhere, including two striking works of genius less than a block from my residence. I'll take a photo of those too some time.

Fichter's stuff may be a little thematically silly, but at least it's very well executed. Galvez's shit is just fucking pandemonium. The composition is an airy, rambling hodgepodge of disagreeable-looking horseshit. These grotesque harbingers of diversity at once frenzy to stoke my nightmares, or whatever you call the type of dream you'd like to shake by the collar and backhand repeatedly. Where do I start with this thing?

1) I've never seen a man employ a conductor's baton and rollerskates to assist him in his quest for spare change.

2) Affable street walkers hustle up a buck on the lemon-lime road. Any takers? How about the kid to the left with the broken foot and the overalls 20 sizes too big for him?

3) This Village People understudy wears on his face the one emotion, regardless of race or creed, with which we are all intimately familiar: profound shame.

3.5) Random-ass black woman: check.

4) "What should I do with all this empty, blood-red space in the background? How about I just sprinkle in a few malingering ragdoll dipshits?"

5) It was probably a perfectly nice old lady this was referenced from. The decision to use this *particular* photo of her, and make her a dominating 9-foot fixture in the mural: DUBIOUS. She's probably been dead for years. Her legacy: BOUNDLESS, SOUL-PUMICING TERROR.

6) Is this some sort of black trucker vampire? Is this child in danger? I might suspect so, but she looks so sinister herself that she's likely his netherworldly superior.

7) I don't... I don't even know.

8) Punk rockers are a culture too. Get him in there. It reminds us that despite appearances, deep down we are all alike: harrowingly one-dimensional.

9) Other cultures can at times be quite flamboyant! This man has passionate feelings in his bosom, and they must take the shape of rhythm come hell or high water. He'd sooner cut out his heart than cease wailing on his bongos. If someone snuck up behind him and pulled his hat down over his head, can you really say you'd have the maturity to not laugh at his expense? The answer is no.

10) Fanciful headwear on a black woman: check.

11) Is this a culture? What sort of culture is it? Caucasians who wear togas while playing jazz? Are we saying that embarrassingly drunk people comprise a culture unto themselves? Memo to this guy: you are fired from Diversity.

12) Disturbing encroachment on chubbykid moneyshot: check.

13) And these people? Perhaps this man is a poor caricature of Ray Romano? I am going to guess that this family is vaguely Mediterranean due to the bit of chest hair poking out from the man's shirt to the right. The hairy dude also seems to be rather oily. Is it really TOO much to ask that our murals celebrating racial diversity not be subtly racist too? Additionally -- the woman appears to be trying her best to not cause me physical harm with her facial expression. She is not succeeding.

Also to the upper right, it looks like camera glare has obscured the Indian family riding their fucking magic carpet, thus sparing you a joke about them. THIS TIME.

44 comments:

Thanks for pointing out the light on the fact that the old lady is exceptionally creepy and one that you might find locked up in a cellar feeding off of children in her gingerbread house. made of children.horrifyingly meanacing

Andrew, instead of forcing all your local fans to converge TWO HOURS away to meet you in profound awe, why don't we have a local get together? I wanted to go to the webcomic weekend, but1. I have a competition that day,2. I can't go to bars yet, and 3. TWO HOURS.Monroe from xkcd did this subtly a while ago, why don't you?

i did some of your paint adventures a while ago, ryan north mentioned them, i think. what caught my attention the most was what you wrote about his stalking story. what you write reads very well. it makes me laugh in a thinking way. not just at stuff. i just had to tell you.

I know this mural. I fear this mural. I am familiar with this mural to a level that is painfully uncomfortable.

Every time I get stuck at that traffic light, the car comes to a halt directly in line with the frightening old woman who is long since deceased. She fills me with the kind of terror that one feels only in one's dreams...

I'm pretty sure the guy with the conductor's baton & roller skates was a fixture in Cambridge for a while? I know I ran into him in Harvard & Central Squares fairly regularly in the late 90s - at that point he was no longer on roller skates and I don't remember if he had a baton, but he did have the top hat & that vest. I feel like I used to know his name . . .

The only reason I didn't laugh more at this (and I did laugh a lot), was because I had to read on - just couldn't let go - and that kind of forced me to hold the laughter, because new hillarity was taking it's place. That resulted in me now sitting here chuckling silly(ly?) all the time... I think I have to read it again now... Thanks for being so damn funny all the time :)

I was walking by the place last week and thought: 'VIM? Fitness? No. That's impossible.'"

Well in that site's about section it describes vim as “energy, vitality, and spirit”. Vim is a real word lol, so vimfitness is a perfect name for that company.Pulchritude is even a real word.–nounphysical beauty; comeliness.